Pakistan said Tuesday its military forces were working closely with those of neighboring Iran to locate more than a dozen Iranian security forces that militants kidnapped in a pre-dawn raid along the border.

The announcement came hours after Tehran urged Islamabad to cooperate in securing freedom for 14 Iranian guards, including intelligence operatives.

“No effort will be spared to assist our Iranian brothers in finding the Iranian guards,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement issued late on Tuesday. “Both militaries, under a joint mechanism established since last year, are working to ascertain the whereabouts of Iranian guards.”

The abductees were stationed at a border post in Iran’s Mirjaveh area when they came under attack from “counterrevolutionary groups,” said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement carried on state media.

The kidnapping occurred in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has a long history of unrest from separatist militants. It borders Pakistan’s sparsely populated province of Baluchistan.